FA Cup final

Jones says pressure on Pompey will lift Cardiff

Lower-league opponents have destroyed the FA Cup ambitions of 10 Premier League clubs this season and the Cardiff City manager, Dave Jones, believes the pressure and expectation upon Portsmouth can conspire to claim an 11th at Wembley this afternoon.

Following a turbulent season involving high court writs and threats to Jones' personal safety, the Championship club have enjoyed a comparatively serene build-up to their first FA Cup final appearance since taking the trophy out of England for the only time in 1927. In keeping with the harmonious mood at Ninian Park, the chairman, Peter Ridsdale, met the former owner, Sam Hammam, yesterday to try to resolve the dispute over a £24m loan that recently threatened to drive the club into administration. "There will not be any more problems. I am talking to Peter and we will sort it out," the Lebanese businessman said of a possible court case over the outstanding loan. "The future is going to be good for Cardiff City." And it could brighten in the most glorious fashion today.

With Middlesbrough accounted for in the quarter-finals, the prospect of Premier League opposition holds no terrors for Jones or Cardiff, although the occasion might. The pressure to succeed and claim the one remaining ticket into the Uefa Cup is, the manager insists, entirely on Portsmouth after a season of unremitting upsets in the FA Cup.

"The night before our quarter-final Chelsea went out and I felt that would have been Middlesbrough's incentive to get into the last four, but instead it inspired my players and the pressure was on Middlesbrough because they were expected to win. Maybe the same will happen at Wembley," reasoned Jones. "Harry's team is expected to win, they're the Premier League club with the high-paid players. We're the underdogs but we'll still go there with a determination and pride. If they do their best then I know I've got a good chance of winning."

Jones has done his utmost to avoid the trappings of an FA Cup final, declining all requests to receive the trophy at Ninian Park, ordering his players to resolve their ticket allocations and finish their media commitments by Monday and travelling to London by train only yesterday. Yet the perks for his club, and for a manager on the threshold of what would be his finest achievement, have flowed regardless.

The Cardiff manager explained: "Just being in the final is good to have on your CV because not many people get that opportunity. I was unfortunate as a player because I only ever got to semi-finals, and quarters as a manager. This is the first time I will lead a team out in a final. We've just had an invitation to the Algarve Challenge in July which Celtic are involved in. That tells you how far this club has come. We're getting invitations for things like that. It would never have happened before."

Jones insists he has given no thought to a possible place in Europe next season - "Winning the FA Cup is the only important thing for now," he said - but the spin-offs of reaching Wembley will be invaluable to a manager who worked on a shoestring and raised millions in player sales, more if Joe Ledley and Aaron Ramsey are sold as expected this summer. "The next stage for this club to develop is now to be able to go out and buy a player," he added. "We've done OK and we're coming along nicely but it would be nice to dip into the market rather than pick up free transfers and bargain buys and trying to turn them into something."

The Cardiff manager will enjoy the luxury of selecting from the strongest squad he has had available all season at Wembley. Robbie Fowler has recovered from a serious hip injury, though is competing for a place on the substitutes' bench at best, while the midfielder Paul Parry is fit following a hamstring strain that forced him to miss last month's semi-final victory over Barnsley.